50. Adam Selipsky

Adam Selipsky is the chief executive officer of Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world’s most complete and widely used cloud service. He also is responsible for sustainability initiatives across Amazon, including achieving the company’s Climate Pledge commitments. Having previously led AWS marketing, sales, and support for 11 years, from 2005-2016, Selipsky helped launch and grow AWS from a start-up into a multi-billion dollar business.

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Before rejoining Amazon in 2021, Selipsky was most recently President and CEO of Tableau Software. He led Tableau through its acquisition by Salesforce, the third-largest software industry acquisition. He has an AB in government from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Within the first year of joining Tableau, Adam Selipsky was netting almost $16.5 million in total compensation. The package included $13.4 million in stock awards and a $1.1 million bonus. As of today, he’s rumoured to be worth in the region of $56 million.

No one can doubt that during his previous tenure with Amazon, Adam Selipsky helped turn AWS into a pioneer in cloud computing. However, some question is the ethics of some of the division’s business practices, specifically concerning its Mechanical Turk website. The website is called a “marketplace for human intelligence,” It lets businesses hire freelancers to do small jobs like classifying images and searching sites. The problem, as The Guardian writes, is that each task is paid at just a few cents each, with the result that pay levels tend to be around $2 an hour before tax.

The site has frequently been accused of exploitation, something Selipsky hotly denies. “Our experience is that the work does not get done if the pay is inadequate. Some groups of workers are doing this as they do other things. They might be watching TV or whatever else they’re doing in their lives. Many workers find work they think is fun and do it for fun,” he’s said. Fun or not, many people have taken issue with a company with a $160bn cloud computing business that’s happy to run a marketplace where workers are paid in cents.

Formula 1 announced a renewal and expansion of their partnership at the end of the 2022 season with Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), which will see the world’s most comprehensive cloud platform become a Global Partner. The partnership will begin a new phase of innovation and digital transformation of the sport. AWS and F1 are passionate about technological innovation and will work together to build the future fan experience.